Amazon tests cashier-less technology for bigger stores

Amazon is testing its cashier-less checkout technology for bigger stores with larger spaces and experimenting the technology in Seattle, according to the Wall Street Journal report.

The online retailer is aiming to scale up the technology for use in bigger spaces with higher ceilings and more production.

In January, Amazon opened its first cashier-less store in Seattle, which was followed by additional locations in Seattle, Chicago and San Francisco. Those stores use cameras and software to detect what items customers pick and charges them accordingly, allowing them to forgo the entire check-out process.

The system allows shoppers to buy things with the help of a smartphone app by tracking what they pick up from the shelves and what they put back, billing their credit cards after they leave.

Amazon reportedly has plans to open as many as 3,000 stores by 2021. That would allow it to compete with chains like CVS and Walmart, and in order to do so, it would need to fix a range of sizes, from the smaller corner store to the larger supermarkets.

Amazon Go was first launched in Seattle in January 2018 and it now has seven such stores in total.